Grand Property ‘Carve Up’ Being Prepared

Lukashenka started “acting like a Tsar” and decided to make his vassals landowners.

From year to year the number of agricultural enterprises showing stable insolvency is growing at an “enviable” rate. Over the past 25 years, so many different useless documents have been adopted to “support” problem collective farms that they cannot be counted today.

Recently, Lukashenka approved a new plan for the “recovery” of bankrupt collective farms. Managers can now get 25% of the shares for free.

Charter97.org asked the head of the Strategy Research Center, well-known economist Leanid Zaika to comment on the next decree of the dictator.

- In your opinion, what stands behind yet another attempt to “improve” agricultural enterprises? Indeed, this time Lukashenka’s plan looks like the distribution of land by overlords between vassals.

- It looks like a serious preparation for the grand “carving up” of property. That is, Lukashenka has been trying to present himself as a “people's choice” for about 25 years, and now it has become clear that he is a regular nomenklatura overlord. The new plan of the so-called “rehabilitation” of agricultural enterprises is an extremely dangerous measure, because the modern chairmen of collective farms have the same rights to property and land as we do.

Virtually all collective and state farms live on the received 15% of the budget. That is, our taxes are pumped to these farms, and now they say that “this will be ours.” In general, the process of robbing of the broad peasant masses will begin.

There can be no other option here. In my opinion, we will now see what a Belarusian landowner is. He poorly directed the collective farm, he was a crap peasant, and now he will very likely be a crap landlord. This conditional director was sitting and suffering, he was kicked about, but in the end he sat out and now will receive a large piece of property. But then the revolutionary proletariat, led by the democrats, will come and correct the situation.

- For so many years, the authorities have been using the method of attaching lagging enterprises to more successful ones, imposing losses. Does this policy make any sense?

- You know, I think that this comes from the sad result of the sociogenesis of the village. All the best that was in the village, and these are young people - they constantly left for study or work. Only those who did not want or could not get a higher education remained.

As a result, the social situation in which the current village finds itself can be corrected by either selling property to those who left the village and then wanted to return and be a good owner, or, say, make private farms out of the peasant farms. It is possible to introduce a system of internal land sales, when there is a five percent centralization of capital and simply the former collective farmers themselves will sell the land to one of their more enterprising neighbors.

But Lukashenka decided to make a gift. After all, he is no longer young, and has himself left the agrarian lobby. You know, this is how Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who by specialty is a dentist, becoming the president of Turkmenistan, first of all abolished taxes for dentists. For almost 25 years, Lukashenka has not done anything for his “dental colleagues” and decided to “reward” them.

In general, this situation reminds me of the dark times of tsarism. Owning the theory of historical knowledge, I want to say that for 300 years all the kings gave out lands to their most loyal people who stood in the service, conquered new territories, defended monarchical power. And they became landowners. It seems me, this decree on collective farms reminds the royal version of development. Lukashenka started “acting like a Tsar” and decided to make his vassals landowners. Earlier, Vasya Pupkin walked around the “parliament”, and now the landowner Pupkin.

In principle, the youth, looking at all this, get out of Belarus. And I, you know, do not blame them, because I have a nephew - a navigator. And where else will he earn 3.5 thousand dollars? In general, there will be landlords, but it remains unclear who will work for them.

- In the Belarusian practice there were examples when an investor invested millions of dollars in agriculture, and as a result was left with nothing. Take, for example, the story of Mikhail Shuryma, an entrepreneur from Minsk, who in 2004 participated in the privatization of a bankrupt collective farm in the Miadzel district and, as a result, lost three million dollars. What advice would you give to people who may intend to take part in the “rehabilitation” of bankrupt collective farms?

- Firstly, one should not be so naive, and, secondly, it would be better if they invest money in the education of the younger generation. There’s no point to get engaged in agriculture. It will further and further come to a dead end in Belarus.

The “wild dreams” that the Russian market will give Belarus 7 billion dollars in exports is all bullshit. I recently returned from Russia, meat there is now cheaper than in Belarus.

In my opinion, Belarusian agriculture has no prospects. Our country is now in a very difficult situation, and our fools do not understand this. On the one hand, Russian agriculture makes ours unnecessary. Moreover, we give 15% of the budget to agrarian barons, we spend, in fact, our money for nothing. And products (meat and milk) are uncompetitive.

On the other hand, the Belarusian authorities have a desire to sit on oil. They ask for more oil to give, but this is also stupidity. If you carefully look at the industrial policy of European countries, for example, France and Germany, then in the next decade there will be a replacement of internal combustion engines. They will simply be replaced by electric ones. That is, cars will have electric batteries. And where, may I ask, will the government sell gasoline? Which car will be filled with the Belarusian petrol?

We have reached the bifurcation point. It is necessary to carry out powerful changes in the agrarian and industrial policy. And here we have a person discussing selling vodka at night or not, giving the land or not. Who needs it, who will work on it?

- Why, when the whole world transfers tot he economy of intellect, the Belarusian authorities keep on nursing agriculture?

- Due to the level of development of intelligence in the country. Representatives of the regional agrarian nomenclature came to power in 1994. These agrarians of the district level cannot do anything else. So to say, the specificity of the political genesis as a result of which the country appeared in a difficult situation.